Crucifixion

Bartolomeo Bulgarini, a leading Sienese painter of the mid-fourteenth century, created this Crucifixion now in the Louvre during the traumatic years surrounding the Black Death. Once confused with the earlier master Ugolino di Nerio, Bulgarini has been recognized as an independent artistic personality who continued the Sienese tradition of emotional, richly colored devotional painting. His Crucifixion scenes, with their expressive pathos and elegant figural style, represent the Sienese response to the crisis of faith provoked by the plague.

Executed in tempera on gold-ground panel, the work displays Bulgarini's characteristic blend of Ducciesque refinement with heightened emotional expression. The elongated Christ figure and rhythmically arranged mourners demonstrate the Sienese school's commitment to decorative harmony even in scenes of intense suffering.